


The Teddy Bet

by FireOpal (Sandel)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: HPFT, Gen, Harry Potter Next Generation, One Shot, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-06
Updated: 2015-09-06
Packaged: 2018-04-19 09:02:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4740614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandel/pseuds/FireOpal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><div class="center">
  <p>Flower Girls, and Unicorns, and Bets, Oh My!</p>
  <p>A bedtime story for Metamorphmagical children.</p>
  <p>---</p>
  <p>Written for raisha's <span class="u">Story Generator Challenge</span> <i>and</i> SunshineDaisies' <span class="u">Short and Sweet Challenge</span> <i>and</i> Jayna's <span class="u">The Childhood Challenge</span>  (where it got 2:nd place!) at the Harry Potter Fanfiction Forums.</p>
</div>
            </blockquote>





	The Teddy Bet

**Author's Note:**

>   
>   
>  Banner by anyroad at The Dark Arts forum.
> 
>   
> The prompts I got for the Story Generator Challenge was: "Neville Longbottom", "Andromeda Tonks", "Dungeon", "Someone loses a bet", and "Unicorn". 

This is a story about a bet. The story has four important characters: there’s Rubeus Hagrid, for one, who suggests the bet; then there’s Neville Longbottom and Andromeda Tonks, who take the bet; and then there’s little Teddy Lupin, who’s arguably the main character (even though he doesn’t even know about the bet).  
  
One day little Teddy – who at this point in the story is thirteen and actually not all that ‘little’ at all – was on his way from Potions class when he ran into another of our main players, namely Neville Longbottom.  
  
Neville had ventured down into the dungeons completely unaware that this was the day that an old bet between him and Andromeda Tonks would finally be resolved... But I’m getting ahead of myself. I haven’t even mentioned what the bet  _was_  yet.

* * *

The story actually began many, many years ago, at the wedding of Harry James Potter and Ginevra Molly Weasley. Back then Teddy really  _was_ quite little – five and a half years old, to be exact. He’d gotten it into his little head that he wanted to be Harry and Ginny’s flower girl, even though the adults told him he couldn’t be, and to persuade them he made his hair long and blonde and flowy, ‘like auntie Fleur’s’, and put on one of his grandmother’s dress robes. And he ended up being so cute in this ensemble that Ginny convinced the other adults to let him be a flower girl after all.  
  
(Which aggravated little Victoire Weasley, who thereby was forced to share the Flower Girl duties – and spotlight – that she had hitherto expected to get for herself. This set up an enmity between the two youngsters that was only to be resolved many, many years later by the means of extensive snogging. But Victoire Weasley isn’t even on my list of main players for this story, so that will have to be a tale for another time...)  
  
Where was I? Oh, yes, Teddy and Neville running into each other in the dungeons...

* * *

Did I mention that they ran into each other  _quite literally_ and not just as an expression? Because well, they did. Neville was strolling down the slightly damp dungeon corridor, whistling on A Cauldron Filled With Hot Strong Love. The whistling was an effort to convince himself that he didn’t at all still feel uncomfortable in the dungeons, even after all these years had passed since Severus Snape last made Potions a world of horror for little Neville.  
  
The reason he was in the dungeons  _now_  was actually potions-related too; he was bringing a bunch of ingredients that he’d grown in his greenhouses down to the current Potions teacher, Professor Tugwood. Accordingly, he had his arms full of Venomous Tentacula fangs, Puffapods, Asphodel roots, Parasitic Parsnips, and Devil’s Snare hairs. This ragbag of herbage took up most of his field of view, which is why he didn’t see the little (or, well, medium sized, to be consistent) blue-haired chap who came sprinting right at him.  
  
Teddy was in the dungeons for potions-related reasons as well, namely that he’d just finished double Potions for the day. He’d been held back by Professor Tugwood to get some extra praise for his spectacular Shrinking Solution, and giddy with excitement he rushed out of the classroom – and right into Neville. The collision sent Neville’s armful of ingredients flying, and when the Puffapods hit the ground they started flowering frantically. Neville immediately got down on all fours to save what could still be saved, and Teddy soon hunkered down to help him. While they worked, they chattered on about Teddy’s studies, and as Neville was prying loose a Parasitic Parsnip from one of the new Puffapod shoots, Teddy suddenly said, “And after lunch Hagrid will show my class a unicorn! Isn’t that cool, Prof?”  
  
“A unicorn?” Neville repeated, in a peculiar tone of voice. “Interesting...”

* * *

That afternoon Professor Longbottom somewhat spontaneously took his sixth year Herbology class to collect Leaping Toadstools at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. When they got there, they were met by another class of students, overseen by Professor Hagrid, who broke out into a huge grin beneath his beard when Neville came into view.  
  
“Ah, Professor Longbottom, fancy meetin’ yeh here,” he greeted the Herbology teacher. “Might be yeh’ve heard I’m ter teach the third year Hufflepuffs ‘bout Unicorns today, eh?”  
  
Hagrid, knew, of course about the bet between Neville and Andromeda, as he had been the one to set it up. But you, my dear readers, know all about that already... oh, wait! No, you don’t. I totally forgot actually telling you about the bet! I’m awfully sorry about that. Oh well, let’s go back to the wedding reception, twelve years ago.

* * *

Neville, Hagrid and Andromeda Tonks had been seated at the same table at the reception, and as they sat there making polite conversation over the treacle tart, little Teddy rushed by, hair and skirts flying as he ran for his life from a very vexed – and (transformed) Veela-esque – Victoire.

That reminded Neville of the delicate question that he’d been meaning to ask ever since he first saw how Teddy were dressed up at the ceremony. He leaned over the table towards Andromeda.  
  
“So, er... I can’t help wondering, would your grandchild prefer to be called by a different name? Different pronouns, maybe?” he asked in a hushed voice. (One of his great-uncles had been thought to be a girl as a kid, you see, so Neville knew that not all people are the gender the Healers pronounce them to be when they are born.)  
  
“Oh! No, no, Teddy’s still Teddy,” Andromeda replied, a little taken aback. “He just likes pretty things, that’s all. And a good thing that is too, as I’ve been extensively told that I’m horrible at naming girls by someone who herself suffered from a name imposed on her by me; and with her gone I fear the task would fall on me if Teddy wanted to be re-named.”  
  
This allusion to the late Nymphadora ‘Tonks’ Lupin came at the cost of a few tears forming in Andromeda’s eyes, but she quickly wiped them away and even managed to smile back at Neville’s surprised hiccup of a laugh and Hagrid’s loud guffaws at her little joke.  
  
After this exchange the three of them sat in companionable silence for a moment, until the two flower girls came racing by again. This time Teddy was the one chasing Victoire.  
  
“Wonder wha’ a unicorn would make of yer li’l Teddy, lookin’ like that...” Hagrid mused. “They’re much keener on gals than lads, yeh know, but maybe he could fool ‘em to lettin’ ‘im close.”  
  
“I bet you he couldn’t,” Andromeda shot back. “I can always tell who he is, however he makes himself look, and I always could with Dora too. I doubt a unicorn would be more easily fooled than me – they’re pretty clever beasts, are they not?”  
  
“Yeah, they are, tho’ I still think... But no! I’m not supposed ter be bettin’ anymore!” Hagrid protested. (But he looked to be of half a mind to break this rule that he’d set for himself.)  
  
“Don’t worry,” Neville interjected, valiantly saving Hagrid from this tempestuous temptation. “I’ll take the bet for you! What do you say, Mrs. Tonks, are you on?”  
  
“Absolutely!” Andromeda replied. “But only if you call me ‘Andromeda’.”  
  
And at that the new found friends shook hands, and then, together with Hagrid, they toasted to Teddy, and to the bet.

* * *

Back in the future, the moment of truth was quickly approaching.  
  
“So, boys, stay back! Girls, come forward...” Hagrid announced to his third years, “an’ Teddy, why don’t yeh change yerself up and see if the unicorn will accept yeh as one o’ the girls?”  
  
With his fingers crossed Neville wandered a little closer to the clearing at the edge of the forest where the unicorn stood waiting. His sixth years could handle some Leaping Toadstools on their own, and Neville was very curious to see what would happen next...

* * *

That night, a beautiful barn owl swooped majestically into the Tonks-Lupin home. Andromeda offered him some kippers while she cooed about what a pretty boy he was, and took the letter from the leg he was holding out.

 _Dear Andromeda,_ it read.  
  
_It is with the deepest regret that I inform you that you’ve won our bet. Today I saw with my own eyes how a unicorn shied away from Teddy as soon as he started walking towards it, even though he to my eyes was completely indistinguishable from young Miss Valeria Vane at the time. Enclosed you will find the ten Galleons I thereby owe you, together with a formal declaration of loss, as agreed._  
  
_It’s with considerably less regret that I inform you that your grandson is as much a delight to teach as he’s always been to know, and that it’s a privilege to see him grow up into a young man that’ll be sure to make you and everyone who cares for him proud._  
  
_Hagrid says hi too!_  
  
_All the best to you,_  
_Neville_  
  
Andromeda smiled wide as she pocketed her winnings and went to find a frame for the ‘formal declaration of loss’. She was happy that she’d won, of course, but mostly she was happy that Teddy had so many people loving and looking out for him.


End file.
